UL acts to 'save Fletcher Hall'

It's rare to see public institutions react quickly to community feedback, so we give credit to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for announcing Monday that it revised its plans for renovating Joel L. Fletcher Hall.

UL demonstrated sensitivity to the concerns of its alumni, students and faculty when it released a rendering of the build­ing that houses the school's architecture program. Reactions to the updated design, which preserves the integrity of the build­ing's original exterior, were mostly favor­able .

Herman Mhire, the now- retired head of the University Art Museum who presided over Fletcher Hall's dedication in 1977, and a vocal opponent of the original renovation design, said he "couldn't have hoped for a better outcome." We applaud the university's willingness to listen to the concerns of those who protested what they saw as the loss of the building's character, and more important, to act upon those concerns.

The revised design came about as the result of an outcry from a loose coalition of those alumni, students, faculty members and former faculty members, principally through the "Save Fletcher Hall" Facebook page. They protested the departure from the art and architecture building's original look, saying the planned façade resembled a juve­nile detention center, among other things.

For architecture professor Hector LaSa­la, the entire scenario was vaguely familiar. He recalls protests in the late 1970s over the building's design, which was the result of a national competition. The fortress-like concrete-adorned structure, an example of a genre of architecture called "brutalism," stands out starkly among the univesity's older brick buildings.

But that was the point. And those who cut their architectural and artistic teeth there grew to love it.

But the building has a fatal flaw. An open­air atrium and that was one of the main sources of water intrusion for the building, which has suffered damage progressively over the past three and a half decades. Hence, the necessity for repair and renova­tion .

W hen Ziler Architects, the firm working on the project, released its first renderings, the protests began. One plan called for cov­ering the building's distinctive exterior with red brick to be more in tune with the rest of the campus. That was especially unaccept­able to those who love Fletcher Hall as it is.

Most people probably don't develop so strong an attachment to the physical attributes of our schools. As long as our surroundings are reasonably clean and well-maintained, we can go in and do our studying without thinking about it too much. But students of the disciplines housed at Fletcher Hall, by their very nature, place more importance on their surroundings.

"For architects, this is our art form," LaSala said.

LaSala was part of a six-member team - including faculty, students and alumni - that studied alternate design options for the renovations that would preserve the flavor of Fletcher Hall's exterior. Charles Beazley, an outside architect, also contributed to the process. The suggestions were presented to Ziler Architects and subsequently incorpo­rated into the plans.

It was a true collaboration, LaSala said, adding that the updated plan is not just a compromise, but is better than the original.

The story of Fletcher Hall is a cautionary tale for those who are charged with making repairs to an institution that has been a part of people's lives for decades. It is often wise to seek feedback from those who have fond memories of spending between 12 and 16 hours a day in the building, as architecture students are said to do.

It is also a story with a happy ending. UL and Ziler Architects turned the tide of dissatisfaction in the community by listen­ing, then acting quickly to find an acceptable solution. That's a solid foundation on which to build.

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UL acts to 'save Fletcher Hall'

It's rare to see public institutions react quickly to community feedback, so we give credit to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for announcing Monday that it revised its plans for renovating

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